Ah, September. Back to school, shorter days and longer nights, migrating geese and monarch butterflies, the stuttering transition to autumn. I am ready for cool, crisp days and chilly nights, chilly nights where I can sit beneath the glow of a lamp with a book while sipping a cup of hot chocolate. I will no longer feel guilty about drinking hot chocolate because it is scientifically proven to be good for me. So bring on the cold weather!

When those chilly nights do arrive, what might I be reading? At the rate I’m going it will still be Crisis of the European Mind. It’s not a bad book, it really isn’t. Though I’ve been talking about it for so long you all are probably beginning to suspect I am not telling the truth. I had hoped to finish it by now and I have made progress. I’m almost two-thirds of the way through. The book just resists being read fast. But I am sure September will be the last month I tell you I am still reading it. Of course I said that last month too, but this time I really mean it!

I will still be reading the Collected Poems of Edward Thomas as well. I have made progress here too. But it is fat for a poetry book (collected poems means every single poem the guy wrote and he wrote a lot!) and while the poems aren’t especially difficult, they are poems that ask you to be in the moment, to hear the wind in the trees and feel the sun on your face, and smell the fresh mown meadow. You cannot rush something like that.

Those two books are my only carry overs from last month so in spite of everything I am feeling pretty good about my reading. Which means I have been suffering major temptations to request a bunch of books from the library and start them all in addition to several already on my shelves. But so far I have mostly resisted and I must say it pains me a little.

Two books I have brought home from the library are Russell Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child and Trojan Women and Other Plays by Euripides. I have two copies of the Hoban, one with the original drawings by Hoban’s wife and one with more recent illustrations. I thought it would be fun to compare. And since this is a children’s book, I don’t expect it to take so very long to read once I start it. And Euripides, well, I realized with guilt the other day that I have not read a single play this year and my plan to have most all of Euripides read by the end of the year was not going to happen unless I actually had a few plays on hand demanding to be read. So there it is.

Then, of course, there is the RIP Challenge to keep in mind. I am about two-thirds of the way through Northanger Abbey and am having so much fun. The book is hilarious. Austen was a comic genius. I’ve been having so much fun reading it Bookman has even started it and has also been enjoying it very much. Also for RIP, I just began The Infernals by John Connolly. I was laughing in delight in less than two complete sentences.

I’ve been in the mood to read essays but haven’t had a chance to squeeze in a book yet. I have the Julian Barnes essays I bought the other day and I have come very close to requesting other books of essays from the library. But I realized I have Auden’s essays that I started so very long ago and haven’t picked up since I don’t know when, so I expect I will be doing that sometime this month.

Then there is Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam that will be landing in my mailbox tomorrow from Barnes and Noble. I am very much looking forward to it and reviews have so far been pretty positive, at least from what I have glanced at because I haven’t read one in full not wanting to know too much about the book be fore I dive in. I’ve read and enjoyed the first two and that’s all I need to know.

There we go, September’s reading card, all filled up.